Chrysler’s Future Portfolio

New and dropped vehicles expected for Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler.

The math behind Chrysler’s product plan calls for adding seven models in 2010, as well as subtracting duplicate nameplates or morphing them into different segments as each platform is due for its next generation over the next five years—all of which is designed to make profits multiply.

“We will draw out of some markets where we shouldn’t compete,” Chrysler vice chairman and president Jim Press said at a media event in Detroit.

Chrysler executives have confirmed that either the Jeep Liberty or Dodge Nitro will be gone by 2012—the safe money says the slow-selling Nitro fades to black.

And the Chrysler Town & Country minivan likely would retain its conventional look and function, but the Dodge Grand Caravan would be dropped. In its place, Press says, could be a more lifestyle-oriented vehicle—marketing speak designed to sell cars to younger consumers. The newcomer could be smaller, more of a Mazda 5 competitor, stemming from a different architecture than the minivan’s “RT” platform.

Press has said Chrysler wants to cut the number of SUVs in its portfolio in half, which means the likely separation before birth of the next generation Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen. Each has sold more than 16,000 units through the first eight months of the year. The Durango name is better known, and Dodge seemingly is the better brand for a truck, so we’re forecasting the Aspen will lose out.

And the Jeep Compass is an odds-on favorite to bite the dust—Press said the iconic brand can’t have “faux Jeeps”—which still leaves two vehicles from the same platform: the Dodge Caliber and Jeep Patriot.

Another pairing is the Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring, but the automaker does have a fix-it program—known as “Project D”—underway to address the shortcomings of the mid-size sedans. The team has traveled around the world gathering information and now is working to implement the data; in other words, it could still be a while.

The whittling of overlapping models is part of Genesis, a program that encourages dealers to sell all three brands under one roof. For example, Press says 60 percent of U.S. showrooms offer the Town & Country on one side of the room and the Dodge Grand Caravan on the other—and the automaker spends $100 million on each to compete against one another.

Under the ownership of Cerberus, the now-private Chrysler will continue to have a $3 billion annual capital budget for product, Press says, over and above the $3 billion being spent on powertrains.

In 2009, the pickings of new vehicles are slim, with only a new heavy-duty Ram on tap and a diesel being added mid-year to the also-new-for-'09 light-duty Ram.

Dodge Hornet Anyone?

In 2010, the seven vehicle launches will include a new B-segment car built by Nissan and based on the Versa. It could be the production version of the Dodge Hornet three-door hatchback concept first shown at the 2006 Geneva auto show. Also due to be replaced by next-gen models are the rear-drive full-size cars: the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger. And the Grand Cherokee and the Detroit plant that makes it are being overhauled to the tune of about $1.8 billion. Chrysler likely is counting the Dodge Ram hybrid pickup as one of the seven.

Press readily admits Chrysler does not have to be a full-line automaker, focusing instead on profitable sales in select segments. “We don’t have to be the biggest or be in every segment.”

Chrysler pared its 2008 model lineup by four vehicles: the Chrysler Pacifica, Crossfire, and PT Cruiser convertible, as well as the Dodge Magnum. Press said the automaker “wrote a five-digit check every time we sold a Crossfire.”

That Thing Will Still Have a Hemi In It

Rear-drive cars and Hemi engines will likely see their volumes decline, but they are not on the extinction list, Press says. “The market for those will be a smaller share in the future, but there is still a place for them.” But he sees more potential in turbo- and supercharging gasoline engines than in aggressively adding diesel engines.

An area that will expand: electric vehicles. Press says just because Chrysler hasn’t produced Chevy Volt levels of hype doesn’t mean it isn’t also working on all varieties of electric vehicles including plug-in, extended-range, and pure electric vehicles. He says Chrysler has the in-house engineering capability—it won’t just rely on its partnership with Daimler and its involvement in consortiums such as the hybrid collaboration with GM and BMW.

The time frame for EVs is still a couple years out. Three concepts were shown at the Detroit auto show with advanced powertrains and Press promises more at the 2009 North American International Auto Show, which will be either production or near-produciton. “We will move them onto the street, rather than the lab,” he says.

And he says securing government loan guarantees to modernize plants and build more fuel-efficient vehicles would speed up the development of such things as electric vehicles “by years, not months.”